Elaine Edwards

Elaine Edwards (8 March 1929-14 May 2018) was a US Senator from Louisiana (D) from 1 August to 13 November 1972, succeeding Allen J. Ellender and preceding J. Bennett Johnston.

Biography
Elaine Lucille Schwartzenburg was born in Marksville, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana in 1929. She married Edwin Edwards in 1949 and convinced him to revert to his original Catholic faith; in addition to their original religious differences, she also hated politics, while her husband was immersed in state politics. From 1972 to 1980 and from 1984 to 1988, she was First Lady of Louisiana, and her husband appointed her to fill a vacancy in the US Senate for three months in 1972, and she chose to resign when J. Bennett Johnston won the election for the seat, as she was uninterested in running for a second term. In 1976, she endorsed the Republican Gerald Ford for president, while her husband endorsed the Democrat Jerry Brown. She divorced her husband in 1989 after 40 years of marriage, and she died of respiratory problems in Denham Springs in 2018.